I Get the Message...

So, on the news last night the city of Albert Lea was requesting that people limit their water use (no showers/baths, clothes washing, dish washing if possible).  This morning Gavin said, "Mom we don't live in Albert Lea, you can do our dishes."

Okay, I get the message, too many dishes in the sink.  It's never ending.

Rain Update

UPDATE:  Here is a link to the newspaper pictures - most of them from Owatonna (the town that Gavin goes to school in).  http://www.startribune.com/galleries/103629334.html

The rain has stopped...for now!  The rain finally stopped last night during the night and it is supposed to be dry, windy and cool today, so hopefully a LOT of drying out can happen before more rain tomorrow.  Gavin's school (that never cancels) called at 6:00AM this morning and they are cancelled for at least today.  The waters are still rising in Owatonna, just 2 blocks from his school (luckily his school is up on a hill so I don't anticipate major problems for the school) although they did have flooding in the basement lunchroom yesterday but they had the clean up under control and were able to keep on top of new water entering the building.  But many homes have not been so lucky and many roads are still closed.  Lots of sand bags are still being made but a levy failed that is right in down town and flooded major roads, businesses, homes and the power plants, so much of the sand bag efforts have been stopped at this point.  My Mom talked about picking up some pizzas and bringing it home for supper tonight, I reminded her that the pizza place is on the other side of Owatonna and although there is probably a way to get there eventually, it would be more like a 30-45 minute drive instead of a 3 minute drive from work.  So, we sit by the tv and watch the terrible flooding and we hope for a stop to the rain and we pray for all of those people who have lost homes and we are thankful for the fact that no major injuries or any deaths have been reported because of the flooding. 

Rain Showers

So, we have had some light rain showers on and off here for the past few hours...Okay, so we have had almost 10 inches of rain in 24 hours.  It has rained non-stop and it has been a heavy rain for 24 hours.  Our sump pump is working overtime and we are trying not to go stir crazy with 6 people cooped up in our small house.  This is the first day that I can ever remember that any schools in our county have been sent home early because of rain (snow...yes, fog...yes, rain...not until today), but Gavin's school was not one of those - they do not close for anything.  So, we did venture out this afternoon to go pick Gavin up from school and got some pictures of the surrounding area and all of the flooding going on right now.

Waterway - that never has water in it...except for today.

River over its banks - A LOT!

This is someones yard that you can usually see their huge garden in.  Today, no garden...

but there were some floating pumpkin remains...

and some more pumpkins/goards and sunflowers.

These next pictures are all pictures of what is normally dry land (we are the one county in the land of 10,000 lakes that DOES NOT even have a lake).  All of the waterways, ditches and fields became lakes today just trying to contain the runoff.

We made two attempts to get to town before we found an okay route to take.  The first one ended up with us turning around when we spotted this...

and out second also resulted in us turning around when we spoted another road washed out...

Why yes, that is a tractor and a combine sitting in water up to almost the tops of their big tires.

More pictures of areas that should not have any water, let alone a whole lake.

It was almost impossible to get around the town of Owatonna where Gavin goes to school.  A trip home that should have taken 25 minutes total, took us 25 minutes to just get out of town, let alone the other 20 minutes of the drive.  There are two MAJOR roads through town and both were closed as the rivers were completely over both sides of the road on both major roads.  So that made for a LOT of traffic on the little side streets with lots of stop signs and traffic lights.  Not a pretty picture driving in town today.

And yet, more lakes...I mean ditches and fields.

And this poor man lost his driveway and his culvert.

Waterway, why yes, it is

It looks like this person is actually in the water but they are not.  We were following them into town and came over a hill to find this.  So, they were turning around.  We learned from their mistake and turned around before getting right up to the water.  Jed came through this area after work and the wayer was not going over the road anymore but part of the road was missing so he too had to make two attemps to find a way home...third time was a charm.

Another river over its banks.

Rules for Life

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this!
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Why?

If any mother can PLEASE answer this question for me, I would greatly appreciate it!

Why is it that EVERY SINGLE TIME I go into the bathroom I get interupted? I can go for hours washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning, or whatever, without being interupted (which I am not complaining about) but the second I go into that bathroom they HAVE to go to the bathroom really bad or they HAVE to show me something or they HAVE to tell me something or they HAVE to be held.

Are you kidding me? And you would think that law of averages would give me one 30 second pee break every few days that is uninterupted. But, nope, the only time I can go to the bathroom uninterupted is at 3:30 in the morning and even then sometimes it is quiestionable as to whether it will be uninterupted or not. And really, am I asking for too much - 30 seconds 4-5 times a day? It truly is 30 seconds, I don't sit in there, I go and I am out - 30 seconds. Although, if it would ever be quiet and uninterupted that might be a good hiding place. Ah, who am I kidding, that is one place I know will never be quiet and uninterupted.

So, for now with 4 kids running around if I want some privacy going to the bathroom I will have to go to a public restroom?! Seriously?!

Gavin's 1st Day of 1st Grade!

Okay, I must have THOUGHT about doing this really really hard, because I thought for sure I posted first day of school pictures but as I went back through our blog this morning, I realized that I had not yet. So, here is Gavin on his first day of 1st Grade. Ready to go and excited to see his friends again, although a bit tired coming off of the big wedding weekend and all of the relatives visiting!

The Stink of It Is....

Rain Coming...

Freshly mowed lawn...

Clean baby...

Garlic Bread...

Hay...

Good Strawberries...

Crisp Clear Day...

Camp Fire...

These are a few of the things that I LOVE the smell of. Something that I DO NOT love the smell of? A skunk's rank odor permeating MY house. AT 3:00am last night I started dreaming about a skunk, I soon woke up to find out that not only was I dreaming about a skunk but I was truly smelling a skunk. Worst smell, bar none, that I have ever had the priviledge of smelling. Not only did it wake me up from a dead sleep in the middle of the night but it proceeded to keep me awake for the next 2+ hours as I seriously tried not to throw up - YES, it was that strong of a smell. I got up and shut all the windows and crawled back into bed. Then proceeded to get back out of bed, open all the windows, turn on all the fans full speed, jump back in bed, pull the covers over my head and try to go back to sleep. Two hours later, I must have finally accomplished that task only to have Carley and Kyra wake me up at as half an hour later at 5:40 - and they were up for the day. :-( Luckily I got Reagan back to sleep after the girls decided to have a chat fest in their room while she tried to sleep. So, Jed put it best this morning: "There's nothing like a good nights sleep...that was NOTHING like a good nights sleep." And the stink of it is...IT STILL SMELLS LIKE SKUNK SIX HOURS LATER!

Wedding Weekend

We welcomed a new member to the family this past weekend. Lacy and Britton were married on Saturday in Woodbury. Family began arriving on Wednesday evening and the last of them left Tuesday morning. Friday it was windy and cold...VERY cold for the rehearsal dinner that was planned for the outdoors, but we were die hards and did it anyway. It's amazing how many clothes people can "find" in their cars when the weather calls for it! Saturday was a beautiful sunny, mild day. The wedding was beautiful as were the bride & groom. Congrats Britton and Lacy!

Sorry, these are in no particular order... Aunt Diane looking at pictures with the kids.

Grandpa, Grandma, Great Grandpa Bob, & Grandma Bonnie.

Grandpa Bob & Grandma Bonnie with the kids. It took MANY pictures to get this one but it turned out pretty good!

Grandpa Bob helping Carley and Kyra get their dunking technique just perfect (something he has taught ALL of his newest grandchildren and great grandchildren over the past 7 years!

Reagan dunking her cracker. She looks so proud.

Carley and Reagan snuggling - I think they might just be a little tired.

Great Grandma Wolf with the kids.

Second (or third, not sure how that works out?) cousins - Wade and Reagan playing in Grandma's flower bed. Shhh...don't tell her.

Little mother hen Kyra helping Reagan along.

A relaxing Sunday in Claremont.

Tyler, Gavin and Nick. Gavin LOVES spending time with these two!She thinks she is hot stuff.

Great Grandma Miller.

Reagan hanging out with Uncle Mike and giving Great Grandpa a "burner" hand slap.

By 10:30 on Saturday night this is what all of our kids looked like. I can't imagine why...after 4 days without a nap, late bedtimes, early rising, and much visiting with relatives!!!

#4 down for the count - Reagan snuggling with cousin Meghan.

#1 down (even though his eyes are open - he is "down" - he was out less than a minute later). Snuggling with Aunt Sharon.

#2 down. Okay, so Kyra isn't down yet. But she went from dancing all over the reception venue to "dancing" in uncle Britton's arms for her last 4 songs that she "danced" to. Thanks for the lift Uncle Britton! We put her in her carseat when we left and she was asleep before we got Carley strapped in to her carseat. A matter of seconds!

And #3 down. Carley was the first to go. She got too heavy and too hot to hold, so I found a nice quiet place by the head table for her to rest.

Gavin and cousin Tyler hanging out.

Lacy giving a speech. Britton giving a dance move?! Not sure what he was doing, but looks like he is having a good time.

Cousins - Joe, Wade, Reagan and Jason with Grandma.

Daddy and Kyra having a rest time.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Sharon with Reagan.

The Wolf Family - Jason, Brandon and Stacy.

Britton and Lacy being escorted to the reception by Bryon and Jacque.

Uncle Bryon, Gavin, Carley, Uncle Britton, Kyra and Aunt Jacque - good looking crew!

Reagan catching some zzz's after the wedding.

They were all dressed up and hair done - I had to do some "yearly" photos to update my picture frames.

Kyra

Carley

Gavin

Grandma and Grandpa.

Buddies - Uncle Mike & Carley.

The ceremony: The kids did great - everyone walked down the isle and they looked so darn cute!

A new family photo. Yeah! Great Grandma Miller, Grandma Wolf and Reagan.

Carley, Kyra, Lacy, Britton and Gavin.

The guys. The girls.

The brothers checking out the rings.

Beautiful Bride!

The grandparents - Bonnie, Bob, Lacy, Britton, Betty, Audrey.

Britton and Bryon before the ceremony.

Little Miss Reagan.

The girls enjoying the smell of the freshly delivered flowers. Aunt Sharon pinning Gavin's flower on.

Many times people think these two are twins when we are out and about - not so far off when you dress them alike!

3 good looking gals - Carley, Jacque and Kyra.

The VERY chilly rehearsal dinner at the park.

Checking each other out. Grandpa Bob and Reagan.

Grandpa Bob reading Amelia Bedeila with Carley.

Reagan and Jason giving Aunt Stacy a run for her money! :-) Grandma Bonnie playing Twister witht he kids.

Grandma aka "wonder woman". She has 80 people to feed the next day but she makes time for her grandkids - snuggling with Kyra and Carley on the living room floor.